As I watched the events unfold in Zimbabwe over the weekend, I couldn’t help but think about the future. The future for Zimbabweans, the future of employment, the type of jobs available, how to fuel the economic growth and what must be a huge need for skills development across the country.

I tried to imagine the challenges of working in the professional training industry when the country’s unemployment rate has been unreliably reported to range from 4%-95%. The truth is I couldn’t imagine what it’s like, so I thought I would ask an expert.

That expert is Wellington Nheta, the General Manager of Adept Solutions, one of Zimbabwe’s most established information technology and training providers.

Adept Solutions has had 101 verified course reviews posted on CourseConductor.com over the last few months; with 94% of customers rating their ITIL, PRINCE2 and MS Excel courses as “Very Good” or “Excellent”.

Here’s our short Q&A from the weekend.

1) You’ve been leading Adept Solutions through some very challenging economic times since 2004, what’s been the key to your success?

Our success has been largely attributed to close attention to customers’ needs and quality service delivery. We are uncompromising when it comes to service delivery and making sure customers get value for their money.

We continuously review our service catalog to match constantly changing customer needs. We reducing unnecessary costs because our market is price sensitive due to the economic situation. We are passionate at what we do, always going the extra mile, and we are firm believers in the future of Zimbabwe with customers trusting us with their business.

2) What are the most popular skills that people want to learn in Zimbabwe?

The most popular courses are ITSM, Project Management, VMWARE, Oracle, Microsoft technical courses and Microsoft end user training.

IT has certainly been growing since dollarization in 2009 when companies started making investments in IT. Companies are looking for better system to manage their IT and generate value from their IT investments. Even government has been heavily investing in IT; prior to 2009 they were largely manual processes with very minimal automation.

3) What type of organizations are investing in training?

We have clients across all industry verticals, government departments and ministries, and non-governmental organizations.

4) What does the professional training industry need more than anything in Zimbabwe?

Currently, there has been very little investment in the sector. Both private and public sector organizations need to invest in skills training.

5) How do you see the future unfolding for the professional training industry in Zimbabwe?

Imagine with 96% unemployment, high company closures due to the economic situation: what will happen if this tide turns?

The advantage is Zimbabwe has the highest literacy rates in Africa and with the pervasiveness of ICT usage there will be massive demand for skilling and tooling of the labour force.

We are not looking at what happening now, we are preparing to be a major player in enabling the country to have skills she needs to take her rightful place at the global table.

We hope other visionaries can also come and help us put this skill capability in place.